MEET THE SPONSORS
FIVE QUESTIONS for TWO DOGS TV
Managing Director David Cole of one of our newest sponsors, Two Dogs TV gave us the inside word on his boutique facility and it’s unique approach to post which are modeled in part on his own experiences as an editor.
In a nutshell, what is Two Dogs TV?
Two Dogs is a boutique post-production facility that caters to all genres of the Film and TV industry. We have built the facility around the one stop shop principle of having Offline, Online, Grade, Audio and Delivery services all under the one roof.
We have a full time staff of 6 experienced and creative post-production professionals to service our clients needs.
You have a broad range of clients how does your operation facilitate their varying needs?
We really just try to offer a really broad range of services and tailor the equipment toolsets, personnel skills and pathways to meet each individual clients needs.
Whether we are servicing large commercial TV productions, high end documentaries, independent films or new media, it all comes down the planning, understanding the delivery parameters, offering a flexible workflow and having a desire to make it as great as it can be with the available resources.
Every production and pathway is different these days, and with varying camera choices available, expanding delivery formats and broadcast platforms, we really aim to get involved as early as possible to help steer production through it. We aim to design a flexible post pathway and services solution to tie all this together and deliver as smooth a ride through post as possible.
Technically we assess each productions requirements, and use our experience and expertise to ‘crystal ball gaze’ any unforeseen challenges that may lay ahead and plan for them.
Creatively, we find ourselves doing a lot of internal R&D to stay ahead of the curve. Playing with new camera formats before they even come our way on shows, running grading and online tests, so we can advise what’s the best way to go for what our clients are trying to achieve. We love a new challenge, so take any problem-solving as a potential to grow the expertise. We then in turn add that back into our collective IP available to our clients.
Tell us about a recent job that was challenging and/or different to the usual.
Every day in post there is seemingly a new, challenging and different pathway to navigate, based on what the production has been shot on. Navigating the multitude of new HD consumer and prosumer camera formats flooding the market, and their implications for post, is a full time job in itself. I recently went to a sports store to buy some swimming goggles and next to the goggle stand was an HD camera capable of shooting 720P, 1080i and a multitude of different formats…for only $200!
The following week, twelve of these cameras found their way onto a broadcast commercial production we were working on and it created a huge technical challenge for our team to overcome. The cameras didn’t have any time code, they created files without any logical pattern or naming convention and the audio wasn’t broadcast quality, so it all needed syncing to the ‘real’ audio files sitting on a separate hard drive. Because of the nature of the observational and event based shoot, visual claps weren’t possible. It was a real needle in a haystack situation.
Over the course of the following two weeks of shoot, we were able to liase with the crew on location and implement an on set system of identifying takes, as well as delve deep into the cameras metadata, to make a coherent relationship between sound and picture that didn’t require days of eye matching.
Whatever happened to the days of sound on tape!?!
Why did Two Dogs TV choose to support the ASE?
As a former editor, and now someone who works closely with editor’s on a daily basis through my facility, I really believe in the core values of the Australian Screen Editors Guild “to promote, improve and protect, the role of the editor” in all screen productions. I think it’s really important we have strong ties with other post-production professionals and to help build a sense of community. Post is lonely business sometimes – it’s good to have some support and solidarity!
We also recently tweaked the brand from 2 Dogs Post to Twodogs.tv and wanted to let the post-production industry know. The ASE is the direct connection with the assistants, editors, post supervisors and the patron saint of post-production so we started the launch of brand ‘tweak’ here first.
What do you think the biggest issue/s are in the post-production industry at the moment?
Post has always been an evolving industry but at the moment it feels like we are riding a huge wave of technological & economic change.
Prices for the top of the range equipment and software have been plummeting, allowing productions access to high quality technology and software that would never have been economically available without going to a multi-million dollar facility and paying heavily per hour to use it.
The cost of entry into the industry is a fraction of what it has previously been. It is now more affordable than ever before for medium sized post facilities like ourselves, to smaller independent production companies and freelance / bedroom operators, to access top of range professional tools.
Which is great for competition and quality of production, but for the industry as a whole I think two steps back, and some thought is required.
Just because you can afford to buy a racing car doesn’t mean you can drive it let alone race it and win. Getting top of the range equipment doesn’t mean Oscars will land at your doorstep.
While post-production seems more technical and complex these days, at is core is still the creativity of the storytellers, the editors. It’s still the picture, visual effects and sound editors who are the artists, not the software tools. This central part of post-production will never change. This is a creative industry. At the heart of it are the hard working professionals that can make use of the equipment and technology available to deliver high quality results.
Great sound tracks are crafted and polishing pictures is an art form. Terms like ‘sound sweeten’ and ‘technical grade’ seem to be used to mask having to do a proper sound mix or visual treatment. So the expectation is we can drop the quality of work because the budget doesn’t support spending the time required to reach a high standard.
Get any group of creative professionals together and you will hear the same buzzwords, race to the bottom, outsourcing, downsizing, going freelance, some darn college kid grumble, grumble …all the old favorites.
The knock-on effects of these buzzwords can be dangerous and not just for experienced professionals but for productions that might forget the old saying “you get what you pay for”.
I can understand the desire for new people wanting to “break into” the industry, but undercutting prices to crazily low levels / working for free are not breaking in to the industry, they are breaking it. Again I can understand why people work for free, they have to. In order to get a chance in this industry you need experience.
New talent should always be welcomed and if they were given a proper path to becoming a professional in this industry with something like an apprenticeship system, then they wouldn’t have to resort to dropping prices to rock bottom/working for free. This would create a steady source of new talent that has been trained to a certain standard, which is great for the industry as a whole.
The post-production industry has always faced challenges and has a pretty good track record at adapting to those challenges. As the industry continues to evolve at such a rapid pace we just have to stay smart about not getting bogged down in the technology and remember it is the people not the software that are the artists.
As I see it my job is to put the right tools in the hands of the editors and productions who need them, and have enough technical IP on hand to make sure everything they need always works.
Simple, right?